Rachel Shapiro

Spinning Babies® Approved Trainer

Rachel Shapiro is an out-of-hospital-birth (OOHB) midwife, working both freestanding birthing centers and her own midwifery practice. She trained in Maine, worked in MN, and currently live in Jerusalem, Israel on the edge of the Jerusalem Forest with her partner and their tiny dog. In the birth world, she supports women and their partners and families in navigating the childbearing year with support, love, and informed care. She began her studies toward becoming a CNM in Israel immediately after arriving, and she’s now finishing her 4th year: just 1.5 left. She’s had the amazing opportunity to train midwife students in America and carried that passion with her. Before becoming a midwife, she was a massage therapist and reflexologist for several years, as well as a prenatal and postpartum yoga teacher. Since starting midwifery school in 2010 it has been her goal and passion to open a midwifery school herself. Her dream is to have an on-site birth center and homebirth practice for some students to apprentice in, a goal that continues to guide her after 8 years. RachelShapiro@SpinningBabies.com

Rachel was first was exposed to Spinning Babies in midwifery school, while watching the Resolving Shoulder Dystocia video in her Labor & Birth Complications class. When she became a midwife, she began attending many birth with Shoulder Dystocias, and a midwife colleague of hers told her that in her 30 years of practice, she had never seen so many dystocias. One day she chatted with Gail Tully about this, and they connected over how dystocias seemed to find them. Gail shared a story about a particularly difficult case, and a few days after that, the same thing happened to her. Rachel called Gail to tell her how her story helped her understand what she was feeling and how to navigate the situation. After that, Rachel and Gail began to discuss the option of starting a research study together on the effectiveness of Belly Mapping with 3 phases: belly mapping, MW palpation, and Doctor guided Ultrasound. Gail met with Rachel a few times and they discussed Daily Essentials. They worked together for several months on the phone, trying out positions on their own bodies and developing an outline, laying down the foundation for what Daily Essentials eventually became. They also made a Kickstarter together for SpB. Shortly after, Rachel immigrated to Israel and lost touch with Gail. Luckily, in 2015, Gail traveled to Israel and they got to spend time together again, and by circumstance, she ended up assisting her in her workshops. They also traveled together, and during that time had some conversations about the QRG. From here, Gail and Rachel maintained contact and Rachel began to work with her helping edit materials, and develop some educational aspects of SpB. In 2016 at a Minnesota confluence, she became a trainer and has loved every minute of working with the amazing Spinning Babies team. She feels “truly blessed to learn from such fantastic people with such varied skills and such dedicated hearts on this road toward better birth on Earth.”

Fun Facts about Rachel

She is an anatomy and physiology geek.

She is inspired by the people she meets through her work – the families she serves, the people she works with and learns from.

She loves the sky and anything related, such as skydiving, parasailing etc.

She recently discovered scuba diving and loves the calm of being deep underwater. She says she can feel her heart slow like at a birth and everything is observed and held in a sacred space.

When she was 18, she dreamt of being a midwife, the same dream every night for months. Once she accepted her calling and the dreams stopped.

She backpacked and traveled around the world for 2.5 years.

She loves to read while drinking a nice glass of cold white wine on the beach.

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